China promotes mixed marriages in Tibet as way to achieve ‘unity’
Erja, center, and Baima, left, celebrate with guests during their traditional Tibetan wedding near Danba, Sichuan Province Jan. 26, 2012. China has turned to promoting interracial marriage in an apparent attempt to assimilate Tibetans and stamp out rebellious impulses. (Carlos Barria / Reuters/REUTERS)
By William Wan and Xu Yangjingjing August 16
BEIJING — During their controversial six-decade-rule of Tibet, China’s
Communist Party leaders have been accused by human rights groups of
trying to tame the restive region by imprisoning Tibetan political
prisoners, keeping in exile their leader the Dalai Lama
and repressing Tibetan religion and culture.
Now, China has turned to interracial marriage in an apparent attempt to
assimilate Tibetans and stamp out rebellious impulses.
In recent weeks, Chinese officials in charge of the Tibetan Autonomous
Region have ordered a run of stories in local newspapers promoting mixed
marriages. And according to newly published
government reports, the government has
adopted a series of policies in recent years
favorable to interracial couples.
Urging officials to push mixed marriages
harder, China’s highest official in the Tibetan
region, Chen Quanguo, recently staged a
photo op with 19 mixed families.
“As the saying goes, ‘blood is thicker than
water,’ we should make our ethnic
relationship like that,” Chen said at the
meeting in June, according to the state-run
Tibetan Daily. The government must “actively
promote intermarriages.”
So far, the government push has seen some
success.
In a report published this month celebrating
such policies, the Communist Party’s research
office in Tibet said mixed marriages have
increased annually by double-digit
percentages for the past five years, from 666
couples in 2008 to 4,795 couples in 2013.
While avoiding specifics, the report attributed
the growth to favorable policies in areas such
as social security, reproductive rights,
vacations, prizes and special treatment for
children born from such marriage, including
education, employment and Communist Party membership.
The government has focused on Tibetans marrying Han Chinese.
Tibet’s population is roughly 90 percent Tibetan and 8 percent Han
Chinese. Demographics for China as a whole is the reverse at 92 percent
Han Chinese and less than 1 percent Tibetan.
The government has sold the effort in state-run media as a way to achieve
ethnic unity, but critics argue that its true aim is to further weaken Tibetan
culture.
In a phone interview, Tibetan poet Tsering Woeser, an activist who has
frequently clashed with authorities, likened the promotion of
intermarriage to the worst practices of colonization.
There’s nothing objectionable about couples
from different backgrounds coming together
naturally, she said. Woeser herself is married
to a Han Chinese, dissident writer Wang Lixiong. But when the authorities
use it as a tool and create policies to encourage it, she said, it feels wrong.
She compared it to Japanese police being encouraged to marry local
women during Japan’s occupation of Taiwan.
For weeks, government-run newspapers in Tibet have featured happy
mixed couples in which the children love both cultures and equally speak
Tibetan and Mandarin.
But among Tibetans, there is great fear about losing their culture and
traditions.
Government policy requires mixed couples to choose early on what
Ethnic Tibetan women attend a traditional wedding near Danba, Sichuan Province January 26, 2012. (© Carlos Barria / Reuters)
ethnicity to designate their children in official documents. Many choose to
name their children as Han rather than Tibetan, believing that it gives
their children a chance at a better life, said a 28-year-old Tibetan woman
who works at a local government department. She spoke on the condition
of anonymity for fear of losing her job.
Many also send their children to study in the better schools of mainland
China rather than in Tibet, she said.
While the percentage of Tibetans who marry Han may be increasing there,
the total number remains small, she noted.
At Chen’s meeting with mixed families on June 18, the party secretary of
Tibet praised intermarriage, calling it recognition of the great motherland,
Chinese as a people, Chinese culture, and the path of socialism with
Chinese characteristics, according to state media.
Chen called for government departments to use everything in their power
and designate key officials to steer public opinion. Party and government
officials should act as matchmakers, he said.
Nationwide, China has long offered ethnic minority groups favorable
treatment as a way to try to integrate them into society, a policy that is
often criticized by Han and ethnic minorities alike.
When one or both spouses are of ethnic minority, a couple can generally
have up to three children, despite China’s one-child policy. Ethnic students
are given extra scores for their minority status in college entrance exams.
Intermarried families are also often awarded honors for being “models of
ethnic unity” and are sometimes favored for government positions.
And Chinese history is dotted with examples of interracial marriage as a
strategy to maintain peace. One of the most famous stories is the marriage
between Chinese Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty and Songtsan
Gambo, then king of Tibet, which sealed a peace treaty.
The story was turned into an outdoor musical last August, promoted by the
government, and is showing in Tibet.
William Wan is The Post’s China correspondent based in Beijing. He served previously as a religion reporter and diplomatic correspondent.
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